There was a near-total absence of truckloads of cash, sewing machines, sarees, bicycles, laptops, etc. as 'incentive' to voters. Evidently, voters did not evince much interest in such 'incentives'. A related issue was the minimal violence by political party goons since voters were tightlipped in all surveys and there was no way of gauging their political preferences and prejudices to beat them into submission beforehand.

Religion-based parties have a canny method of making political space for themselves and becoming a part of the mainstream political system eventually. This has been the trend since the germination of religion-based groups in the Middle East with political aspirations, in the early 20th century following the end of the caliphate. The idea was transmitted …

Almost nine in 10 casualties happened on October 20 itself, making it the election day with the highest number of civilians killed and injured since the UN began its systematic documentation of civilian casualties in 2009.

It would be an over-simplification to reduce if to mere physical geography, just as it would be an exaggeration to deem it a case of intellectuals versus the “plebs”. Yet the sharp contrast in the results thrown up in the elections to the students unions of the two premier universities in the Capital has its …

Imran Khan, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, was not the first choice of the US administration in the latest national elections. The circumstantial preference of the establishment (aka the military) was a selection-by-elimination of the other two options ~ Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N and the Bhutto-Zardari led PPP. Imran’s rhetoric over the past two decades in …

Despite being dogged by allegations of electoral engineering and vote-rigging, this year’s hotly contested general election in Pakistan should be – cautiously – celebrated. As a new government is sworn in, the country is marking a milestone in its tumultuous political history: the first time three democratic elections held in a row at regular intervals. …